Products and Partnerships Manager

This role is for an initial period of 1 year, but with the potential for it to become permanent for the right candidate and subject to funding.

About the Department

The Church of England Pensions Board provides retirement services to those who serve or work for the Church. Both a regulated pension fund and registered charity, more than 43,000 people rely on us for their pensions. A leader in ethical and responsible investment, we carefully steward the £3.4bn of pension savings entrusted to us to not only grow our members’ pensions, but also to drive systemic and lasting change across the industries and sectors in which we invest for a just and sustainable world. The Board also supports 2,500 retired clergy with housing, including managing a national portfolio of 1,200 rented homes and Community Living options. We are working to open new choices and forms of support for our members around their future retirement plans, with housing and financial service industry partners. This includes bringing new tailored products to life on home ownership, financial advice, coaching and financial wellbeing, harnessing the expertise of those partners.

About the Role

Working as part of an Implementation team, this role will manage the design and stand up of innovative new partnerships to support our customers with their retirement plans. This will involve working with proposed partners to finalise the ‘nuts and bolts’ of how new products and referral paths will work in practice, with a focus on housing and financial services partnership areas. It will also involve setting up commercial arrangements that offer value for money and prioritise a seamless customer experience. Using your expertise, you will also support our teams to make the most of and broaden existing partnerships.

What you’ll be doing

• Quickly understand the existing partnership landscape – assessing where we need to formalise fledgling partnerships to bring new products and choices to our members, and where we need to conduct more due diligence or cultivate new opportunities.
• Build a good rapport with prospective partners, setting out a clear plan for getting from detailed design to a workable product and customer journey as quickly as possible.
• Working with partners to ensure excellent customer experience for our members, with seamless integration into other services and support offered by the Church.
• Run procurement and commercial negotiation processes to formally establish essential partnerships– likely to be a mix of invitation to tender style processes, and more innovative investment partnerships.
• Work collaboratively with internal colleagues to establish robust back-office processes to govern flow of money and data between partners and the Church, including defining and implementing feedback/reporting processes.
• Set the foundations of good partnership/supplier management, including a strong focus on quality assurance.
• Provide expertise to our team on navigating regulated markets e.g. knowing what type of questions to ask and when to seek specialist advice.
• Work with communications colleagues, to ensure that new choices supported by partners are communicated appropriately mindful of regulatory lines and the intended audience.
• Coach and support colleagues who are setting up signposting/informal partnerships with a range of housing providers, as to how to establish those relationships and ensure their success.
• Design and implement the right horizon scanning mechanisms within the team to help colleagues keep abreast of relevant developments around in financial advice, housing and related markets.
• Monitor feedback on relationships and work with partners to evolve services.

About You

The Church of England is for everyone and we want to reflect the diversity of the community the Church serves across the whole country. Therefore, while of course we welcome all applications from interested and suitably experienced people, we would particularly welcome applicants from UK Minoritised Ethnicities (UKME)/Global Majority Heritage (GMH) and other under-represented groups. As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to recruiting disabled people. We offer interviews to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the role.

What we offer

• A salary of £59,248 per annum, plus age-related pension contributions between 8-15% of salary. We will also match any pension contributions you make up to an additional 3% of your salary.
• 25 days annual leave (increasing to 30 days within 5 years) plus eight bank holidays and three additional days (pro-rated if working part-time).
• We welcome all flexible working arrangement requests. This is looked at in a case-by-case scenario and if this fits within the department’s needs.
• Structured induction programme and access to a range of development opportunities including apprenticeships.
• Automatic enrolment and access to Medicash (one of the UK’s leading health cash plan providers), providing you with many services including reimbursements of routine dental treatment, optical, specialist consultations, and therapy treatments.
• Unlimited access to virtual GP & Private prescription service and health & Stress related helplines.
• Access to Occupational Health, and an Employee Assistance Programme.
• Access to the Department of Education Restaurant and Westminster Abbey with a plus-one guest.
• Opportunity to join the Civil Service Sports & Social Club, and get involved in a range of staff networks, groups and societies.

ABOUT NATIONAL CHURCH INSTITUTIONS

The National Church Institutions comprises a wide variety of teams, professions and functions that support the mission and ministries of the Church of England in its vision to be a church, centred on Jesus Christ, for the whole nation - a church that is simpler, humbler, bolder. We Include. You Belong. Our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy aims for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background. Living out our values in all that we do, we: Strive for Excellence, Show Compassion, Respect others, Act with Integrity. We believe our commitment to belonging and inclusion fuels our progress and drives us forward. The NCIs are a safe, inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds and walks of life. We welcome applications from people of all faiths and of no faith. We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people who share our values. Even if you have never thought about working for us before, if you have the skills and experience we’re looking for then we would like to hear from you.

Please note: You must have the right to work in the UK to be considered for the role.